English Language Learners (ELL)

Welcome to the English Language Learners page! Our ELL teachers and educational assistants serve students from Asia, Africa, North America, South America and Central America. There are more than 15 languages spoken by students and their families at Linwood Monroe Arts +. Many of our students have fluency in two, three and even four languages. We are proud our diverse community of language learners!

What is the goal of the ELL program at LMAP?

The goal of both the Saint Paul Public Schools ELL department and Linwood Monroe Arts + is to promote English language proficiency and mastery of academic content in a collaborative setting. We believe that English language learners learn best when held to the same rigorous standards as their native English speaking peers and are given the appropriate supports and scaffolding to reach those standards.

How do we work toward this goal?

ELL teachers support and instruct ELL students using the following models and programs at Linwood Monroe Arts +:

Language Academy: Students in grades 1-8 who are new to the country and need intensive English Language Development qualify for the Language Academy program. ELL students in the Language Academy class are integrated into the school and larger community, giving them daily interaction with their native-English-speaking peers to build language skills both academically and socially. The Language Academy class is taught collaboratively by the mainstream grade level teacher and the ELL teacher. Both teachers plan lessons in a collaboration, thereby providing differentiated instruction targeted to the specific needs of newcomer students. This intensive collaborative program helps students rapidly develop the English language skills necessary for academic success.

Language support through content: Many ELL students receive English language instruction during reader’s workshop, writer’s workshop, science rotation, and/or math. ELL teachers create and teach lessons that target content level standards as well as English language objectives during content area instruction. ELL teachers work collaboratively with classroom teachers to provide small group support and instruction to ELL learners.

Bilingual Educational Assistant Support: Many ELL students receive direct service from an educational assistant during math workshop. Our bilingual EAs provide instruction in Hmong, Spanish, Amharic, and Somali. Students who speak these home languages receive native language support on a rotational schedule during the math block.

Middle School Language Support

Our middle school offers a safe and supportive environment for English learners as they simultaneously learn the English language and academic content. We provide English Language Development classes (featuring the Inside USA and English Now! curriculums) which equip students with the building blocks of English. We further support our English learners through the practice of co-teaching English Language Arts (ELA) classes with the mainstream ELA teachers. In this way we are able to assist our students with both language and academics throughout the day.

ELL Teaching Staff (for more information regarding a particular teacher, click on the their name on the right-hand side of this page):

Kelly Baumgartner (Linwood campus)

Krista Michaelis (Linwood campus)

Jessica Rooney (Linwood campus)

Sarah Hernandez (Monroe campus)

Shelly Kinzer (Monroe campus)

Educational Assistants (EAs) (for more information regarding a particular EA, click on the their name on the right-hand side of this page):

Our four ELL Bilingual EAs rotate between the Linwood and Monroe campuses: